Skip to main content

Karen is My Name, and Smashing Stereotypes is My Game

 Okay, my name isn't actually Karen. However, Karen is my mother's name and the name of other important people in my life. Unfortunately, Karen has also become a neganym, a derogatory name for any woman who insists on doing something that the user disagrees with, from refusing to wear a mask to cleaning up a mess left by the user's children. The meme originated because of one man dissing his ex-wife, but it has now morphed into a widespread insult. 

In my post Don't Be Like Judas, I mentioned that his worst act was his last one, and that's all he's remembered for now. The same is true of Benedict Arnold, and now these two names are widely used neganyms for anyone who betrays someone else. These neganyms are perfectly acceptable while using Karen as a neganym is not.

The first reason is because what Judas and Benedict Arnold did is universally seen as wrong. Almost everyone has felt the sting of betrayal at some point in their life, although for most of us it's far below the scale perpetrated by these two men. With Karen, most of the time it's used because of a disagreement. The "Karen" isn't actually doing anything wrong, it's just something that the person using that neganym disagrees with.

The other reason is that Judas and Benedict Arnold are not common names, whereas Karen is. Judas betraying Jesus was an act so heinous that even atheists don't give that name to their sons. Benedict is slightly more common, but the addition of his last name in the neganym keeps others with the name from being perceived as being as traitorous as he was.

Karen is a name that means pure, a fact I found particularly interesting when I learned it because it so accurately described all the Karens I knew at the time. Now, because of people using it as a neganym, it is rapidly losing its popularity. Sure, names often fluctuate in popularity throughout the years, but the reason this one is doing so hurts those that already have that name. I know Mom was upset when she first saw Mean Girls because the character Karen was such an idiot, and she didn't want people to see that movie and think that all Karens were stupid. Now I'm sure that she would much rather have that version of the neganym than the one we currently have.

I'm sure none of us want our name to be used in this way, so why would we want to do that to anyone else's name? God commands us in Exodus 20:7 not to use His name in vain, and I'm sure He feels the same way about the names of his children. So next time you're tempted to call someone a Karen, I would ask that you first consider how you would feel if one of your mistakes caused people to begin using your name in the same way.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Just a Girl

"And he came and said to her 'Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.'" - Luke 1:28 Last week we celebrated the birth of our Savior, and people around the world read about the miracle of His conception, the trip to Bethlehem, the shepherds, the angels, and the wise men. There are many characters in this wonderful story of our faith, but I want to focus on one in particular: His mother Mary. Of all of them, she was the first to know about what was about to take place, and the first to have to accept her part in the story. Most of the images depicting Mary show a lady in her mid-twenties at least, the age many would associate with someone engaged to be married. However, this is likely not the case. In that time, it was common for a girl to become betrothed when she was still in her early teens, often to a man who was much older and had already established a career. Jewish betrothal was as binding as a marriage, with the only difference being that the man had n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Outside Looking In

(My post Life>Death  chronicles my struggle with suicidal depression. This story is based on the vision God used to save my life.) It all started after the knife sliced through my wrist. As I watched my life drain away, I felt a sense of peace. I knew my pain was finally over. Soft arms lifted me up and carried me off to Heaven. There I watched as my parents found my body. They started to cry, which I had expected. What I hadn't expected was what they were saying. "What did we do wrong?" they cried out. "Nothing!" I screamed. "You did nothing wrong!" But they couldn't hear me. What had I done? As my friends and other family members found out about my death, they said the same thing, and I continued screaming that it wasn't their fault. Their reactions caused me to be in agony, which struck me as strange. If indeed I was in Heaven, wasn't I supposed to be pain free? That is what I had always been taught. Then came my funeral. It...
2 comments
Read more

I'm a What, Now?

"But you, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world"~1 John 4:4 Those of you who read my post " Life>Death " will remember that I talked about a young woman who called herself a suicide survivor because her father took his own life, and then used her status as an endorsement to talk about how suicide was not a selfish act. In my post, I stated that since she did not actually survive suicide, she was not a suicide survivor. However, I found out recently that family and friends of suicide victims being called "suicide survivors" is a thing. As in a psychologist-defined, support group namesake thing. As someone who has actually survived the temptation to commit suicide, this fact is quite frustrating. One reason is because of people like the young lady mentioned in my other post thinking they are experts in suicide because they are "suicide survivors." I don...
Post a Comment
Read more